Hanging Around!

It was great getting back out on two wheels again. Even the torrential rain and brutal headwind climbing up the Crow Road didn't dampen our spirits. We were smiling from start to finish. By the time I got back to the house, there was not one dry bit on my entire body. The way that I look at it is that we are just putting in the wet hours to earn some right good days in the weeks ahead.

We took a new way back from Kilsyth this morning and I had a flashback to my first ever longish ride which took me on the same road. I had only been riding a few months after giving up smoking and had worked my way up to 3 x 25 mile rides per week. One Saturday I decided just to head out and see where I ended up. I was riding an old hybrid bike with only one gear working on each of the 3 chain rings and only a rear brake. Anyhow I ended up doing about 40 miles that day and I think that was the day my love of the two wheel adventuring was born and cycling transcended from being something that I did just to keep my hands busy when I woke up at 4am each day to a life time love. After that day the weather changed and I spent the next 3 months doing laps of the ring road round about my house, it was working out at about 20 miles across 6 laps. It was deadly boring but the most important thing was that I was riding. I saw some real mental weather during those winter months which made today seem like a summer's day. At no point was I more than 10 mins from my house so puncturing (at least 25 times) was no hassle as I wheeled my bike back home and fixed it with a cup of tea in one hand.

Fantastic memories!! Come a long way since then but at the same time, I have not really come that far because my motivation remains - you can only get wet once!